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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

To honour the recent retirement of Professor C. Douglas Hay from York University, where he held appointments in the Department of History and Osgoode Hall Law School, a conference in his honour will be held at York University on Thursday, 5 May 2016. “Doug” is one of the best-known legal historians in the English-speaking world, an achievement recently recognized when the American Society of Legal History named him an honorary fellow. While his scholarship has been devoted primarily to British topics, Doug has also contributed to Canadian legal history, particularly with respect to post-1760 Quebec. His work on both Britain and Canada has been an inspiration to Canadian scholars for its scope, ambition, sophistication and creative utilization of sources, while providing interpretive frameworks that have been readily adopted in a broad range of Canadian scholarship.

The organizers expect that the British historical community will find its own way of honouring Doug. This conference is aimed at Canadianists who have worked on topics or themes similar to those found in Doug’s scholarship, or who have employed his approaches in their own writing. We are particularly interested in hearing from Doug’s former graduate students. Proposals are welcome from scholars or graduate students in any academic discipline, from independent scholars, and from those in professional practice. The only substantive requirement is that the proposal engage with the nexus of law and history in some way.

A selection of the papers will appear in a theme issue of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal devoted to Doug’s career and legacy. Papers chosen as candidates for publication must pass through the Journal's peer review requirements.

500-word paper proposals should be sent to us at the email addresses below by Monday 7 December 2015. Decisions will be made early in January 2016. Applications for funding are in progress and we aim to provide reimbursement for travel costs of graduate students, pre-tenure scholars and those in precarious work situations. Please indicate in your proposal whether you are likely to need such support.

On behalf of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, we welcome you to the Canadian Legal History Blog.

We hope the blog will prove a useful place for the wonderful community of legal historians we have in Canada. It won't be the place to go to discuss the meaning of the second amendment of the US constitution, or medieval pleading and practice, but we want it to be where we share knowledge and discuss aspects of the unique and exciting legal history of our country.

Please send us your news and/or views on research, publications, conferences and all things Canadian-legal-historical! If you would like a chance to post yourself, let us know and we'll gladly add you to the list.

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